CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The No. 25 Illinois baseball team allowed eight runs in the first four innings Tuesday to Valparaiso and fell 11-7 at Illinois Field. The Illini snapped a five-game winning streak.
Illinois (23-9) answered Valpo's four-run first inning with four runs of its own but scored only three runs the rest of the way. The Illini snapped a nine-game winning streak in midweek games.
Doran Turchin hit a three-run homer in the first inning, his eighth of the season, and Zac Taylor added a two-run shot in the eighth, his seventh.
Valparaiso (12-19) secured its second top-50 win of the season and first since winning 11-4 at Oklahoma in February. Giovanni Garbella led Valpo with four hits and Blake Billinger had three hits, including a homer, and three RBIs.
Freshmen Jimmy Burnette (1.1 IP, 2H) and Ryan Kutt (1.0 IP, 0 H) had scoreless outing for Illinois.
Illinois is back in action this weekend for a three-game series against Grand Canyon at Illinois Field.Â
Notes
• Illinois is 22-6 in its last 28 games.
• Illinois lost a midweek game for the first time since March 28, 2017, a streak of nine straight wins.
• Illinois is 18-3 when scoring five or more runs and 22-5 when scoring three or more runs.
• Illinois is 16-4 all-time against Valparaiso.
• Illinois and Valparaiso met for the first time since 1981.
• Ben Troike extended his career-long reached base streak to 37 games, the longest active streak in the Big Ten.
• Zack Jones tied his career high with 3 2/3 innings pitched.
• Bren Spillane, the Illini's leader in nearly every offensive category, missed his third straight game with an injury.
